


Crows and Chick

by KaenOkami



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Family, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Sports, Teaching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:33:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24907666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaenOkami/pseuds/KaenOkami
Summary: In which Shouyou gifts Natsu her first volleyball, and the rest of the team is more than happy to teach her how to play the game.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 52





	Crows and Chick

“Natsu! Come on, quit squirming around, huh?!”

No part of his little sister was holding still for him, wiggling around and batting at his arms as if she were trying to initiate a slap fight. “Nooo! Nii-chan! I don’t wanna wear the puff coat! I want the lion one!”

“Well, we’re still trying to get the paint stains out of your lion one, so Mom told me to stick to the puffy one if I’m taking you out anywhere but the backyard! Didn’t you say you _wanted_ to go to the park?!”

“Yeah! I wanna!”

“Then hang on and hold still so I don’t break this darn zipper!”

Shouyou stuck out his tongue as he focused intensely on the zipper. It didn’t take long for his patience to run out, and the impulse to just grab tight to the infuriating bit of metal and shove it straight up and hope for the best to win out.

The last time their weary mother had tried that move, it had snapped straight off, and then somehow flown straight across the room and shattered the bulb of a lamp (Shouyou was still trying to puzzle out the physics of that one). But it appeared that the fates were on Shouyou’s side: the zipper pushed seamlessly slid right up to its proper place. Maybe such a small accomplishment didn’t call for quite so wide a grin, but one showed up on Shouyou’s face anyway.

“Awesome! All right, Natsu, are you ready to get going? Ready to have some fun?”

Natsu looked up at him with an annoyed pout. “Nii-chan, I look like a marshmallow,” she said, flapping her arms up and down unhappily. “A dumb, pink marshmallow.”

Privately, Shouyou sort of agreed. He wasn’t sure what their grandmother had been thinking, gifting Natsu with a winter coat that was simultaneously too tight and too bulky for a six-year-old her size. While his own present, the brown leather jacket he wore now, was just a little bit too thin to be weather-appropriate at this stage of November, it was at least more flattering on him. However, as Natsu’s big brother, his job was not to point out these things, especially when she already knew them, but to distract her from them. 

“No, no! You’re a _cute_ pink marshmallow! The best marshmallow! Every other marshmallow should be jealous of you!” He gave Natsu a soft, playful poke in the stomach to punctuate the point, and was rewarded with the giggle and smile of quickly forgotten complaints. “Now come on, you ready to go?”

“Yeah, I think so!”

“Awesome! Then let’s move!”

As Shouyou hefted his backpack onto his shoulders and reached out to open the front door, she reached up to securely grasp her older brother’s hand in her own, which always somehow managed to be slightly sticky with leftover candy. 

Her grip was tiny but strong, and did not loosen even when his larger, stronger hand enveloped the whole of hers. She tugged on his arm plenty as they made their way down the street, drawing his attention to the new and interesting things she seemed to see every single time they left the house. These things included, but were not limited to; a tiny dog with a pink collar, the fact that the lights were on in the house of someone they didn’t know, and the new menus in the front window of the barbecue place.

“Nii-chan!” Natsu called out once more, yanking down on his arm like the reins of a horse. Shouyou, having learned by now that this meant he was supposed to stop and look where her free hand was pointing, did so. “Nii-chan! There’s you in the window! And Kage-san, and Noya-san, and Dai-san!”

“Huh?” Shouyou blinked in confusion, and looked up to see a small, flatscreen TV in the middle of the sporting goods store’s front window, posters plastered around it. The volleyball clips playing on the TV seemed exceedingly familiar. “Oh!”

There he was, leaping high in the air to spike one of Kageyama’s tosses straight down into the court floor, with the echoing slam that thrilled him more than any sound in the world. And there was Nishinoya in a dive-and-roll receive across the shining wood, and Daichi performing a back row attack with Sugawara calling from the sidelines, and Tsukishima leaping up for a block...

They were very short and quick, and the announcer was terse in discussing their last match before the program switched to another school’s team. Still, it made the hair stand up on the back of his neck to see it with Natsu jumping up and down and cranking his whole arm like a slot machine. Her face was lighting up as if he were some kind of celebrity.

“Nii-chan! Are you _famous_ now?! You and Kage-san and everybody?” 

“No, no,” Shouyou rushed to say, sheepishly grinning and rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand. “It’s just local TV, none of us are gonna be on real TV for at least a few years now, and we —”

But Natsu was hearing none of that. She cut him off with a noise of disapproval, crossing her arms defiantly and crushing Shouyou’s forearm to her chest in the process. “Hmph! TV is TV! You and Kage-san and all of them are great volleyball stars!”

“Okay, okay, if you say so,” Shouyou laughed. He moved to start walking again in the direction of the park, but Natsu had other ideas about that, too. “Huh? Hey, what’s up?”

Natsu was not quite strong enough to tug her big brother where she wanted him to go just yet. But she could sure as hell make a good attempt at pulling his arm straight out of its socket as she tried to head for the sporting goods store instead.

“H-Hey! That’s my spiking arm!”

“Will you get me a volleyball too? Just a little kid one? Pleeease! I want to play like you guys do!”

Shouyou sighed, and dug in his jacket pocket with his free hand to check his wallet. It looked like he had just about enough to cover a little splurge, he supposed.

“Sure. Go ahead and lead the way, Natsu, pick one you want! But _just_ one, and not too expensive — I’m not made of money!”

Natsu ended up leading him up and down the aisle devoted to volleyball items, and then through the children’s aisles and back. She finally settled on a bright orange foam ball that she was delighted to find matched both their hair, and that she insisted on throwing into the air and bouncing the rest of the way to the park. (Shouyou instantly became twice as vigilant about making sure neither ball nor sister ended up in the road.)

Their neighborhood park was rather empty, but it did have a small sand volleyball court. He’d never much liked playing on sand, especially in colder weather, but it would have to do for Natsu’s purposes. 

“So okay, when you play volleyball, you’re supposed to have six players on each side, twelve per team. It’s more fun with a team, obviously, but since mine’s not here —”

He was cut off by a vigorously friendly arm around his neck. “And who says we’re not, huh?!”

Far from defending her brother from this vicious attack, Natsu bounced up and down, dropping the ball to clap her hands. “Tanaka-san!”

“Yo, Natsu!” Tanaka’s grin could match the sun for brightness. “We saw you guys over here and figured we’d come say hello!”

“We?” Shouyou squeaked, then turned his head to see Nishinoya bolting across the grass, followed by the much calmer Sugawara and Kageyama. Nishinoya’s vigorous leaping hug knocked both Shouyou and Tanaka to the sand, making Natsu giggle with delight. 

“Noya-san! Suga-san! Kage-san!”

“Long time no see, Natsu-chan,” said Sugawara warmly. “ Are you learning how to play volleyball?”

“Yeah!” Natsu held her new toy out to him. “With my big sun ball!”

“Oh, that’s cool!” Suga replied.

Kageyama nodded in acknowledgement. “Well, be thankful we’re here. You’ll need a good trainer.”

“Hey!” cried Shouyou as he clambered back to his feet. “What about me?!”

“What _about_ you?”

Natsu still looked as if she were in the presence of legends, unable to stand still. “You guys are so great! I love it when you go —”

She started to bounce around smacking her ball, jumping as high as she could, and rolling in the sand and leaves to mimic a spike, much to the team’s laughter. 

“Want to play a practice game?” Tanaka suggested, as Nishinoya helped Natsu get back on her feet and brushed the sand off her coat. Tanaka then crouched down and showed Natsuhow to put her hands together for a bump. “We’ll show you all the right moves! Think you can do it?”

Natsu grinned fiercely. “I can do any sports thing!”

“That’s the spirit!” 

They all found positions around the fraying net, bright and ready. Sugawara gently took the ball and prepared to demonstrate a serve. “Ready, Natsu-chan?”

Shouyou lifted Natsu up and set her on his shoulders, the two of them sporting identical smiles. “Okay, Natsu. Ready to fly?”

Natsu pumped her fists. “Yeah, nii-chan, I am!”


End file.
